An average employee spends about 8-9 hours (approx.) or even more at his workplace. Presumably, work occupies most of this time and the infamous tea, lunch and smoke breaks occupy a fraction of this time.

While many employers rue about the ‘actual work productivity’ in these ‘work hours’, research has shown that motivated and happy employees are more productive. Also, in a bid to be a ‘great place to work’ organisations are quickly adopting ways and measures to bring more transparency at workplace. Many new-age employers are exploring ways and means that boost a fair work culture, appraisal processes, provide equal growth opportunity to all employees, foster diversity at workplace which brings in fair representation of all social strata, work grievance forums etc.

This Republic Day, TimesJobstakes a quick look at how India Inc.is bringing about ‘democracy @ workplace’.

Why democracy matters at workplaces“Workplace where employees feel valued and heard, foster smarter ideation, faster work and happier employees as compared to a stifling, fear-driven workplace that may look great on a resume but makes one’s life miserable,” says Anviti Sangwan, HR Director, Adecco Group India.

Workplace democracy impacts business too“Business environments have changed the way organisations look at people related policies. Prior to any policy formation, organisations are now inviting employees to share opinion about them. Also open houses are organised to understand what would be the best polices, keeping the business and organisation interest alive and how they can beat the competition and attract the good pool of people from the organisation by developing/exploring democratic approach,” says Sunil Goel , GlobalHunt a leading executive search firm.

Anviti too agrees with the equation between democracy and workplace. “Democracy impacts the bottom line because it attracts great talent, keeps turnover and absenteeism low and produces a more innovative workforce that is able to execute ideas quickly. A company that focuses on a democratic business design describes organisational democracy as "freedom within a business framework,” she says.

Democracy goes digitalWorkplaces are banking heavily on digital tools that capture the employee sentiments instantly and make them ready for further consumption and use. “Organisations are now introducing multiple formats through which employees are rewarded for answering survey questions with a Twitter-like scroll showing (anonymous) survey responses, virtual suggestions, and Cheers for Peers. This is a big step towards making workplaces transparent and more inclusive,” informs Anviti.

“Some of the tools like SLACK, Sharepoint, Flowdock, GoTo Meeting, WebEx, Salesforce, Google Apps, Ever note business etc. collaboration tools have been used extensively by the companies to have a democratic approach and freedom of internal communication. Voting up the right initiative and being critics for not so good activities with the logics helps the organization optimise it internally before they go to public domain,” says Sunil Goel.

POPULAR TOOLS & PRACTICES THAT HELP BRING DEMOCRACY @ WORKPLACE

Online employee opinion polls

Townhalls

One-on-one meetings

360 Degree feedback

Dynamic appraisal processes

'Ask Me Anything' sessions

Startups and democratic workplacesIn 2015, Accenture dumped the bell curve way of measuring yearly performance. Google, Microsoft, Adobe and KPMG also don’t sue the bell curve any more. These companies are mostly adopting a more dynamic way to track work performance, and this includes half-yearly or quarterly goal setting and reviews.

“So far only new age business such as startups, IT/,ITeS, ecommerce services have given due importance of bringing greater transparency at workplace. Brick and Mortar companies like manufacturing, power & energy, infrastructure etc. still have not got in this mode. This might be due to the fact that in such organisation you have employee segregation into blue collar and white Collar wherein in new age business 95-98% workforce are professionals,” adds Sunil Goel.